Cars

[shelbix2020]

Im heading up to the LA car show tomarow ... Wed ... to take a few pictures of the cars. Ive been to car shows a couple of times with my G2 and I cant seem to take good pictures :evil: :evil:

Anyone have any suggestions? .. so far Ive learned NOT to use the flash and that the shutter speed needs to be a lil slow, 1/4" at least, to take good shots.

Thanks

[sdommin]

Anyone have any suggestions? .. so far Ive learned NOT to use the flash and that the shutter speed needs to be a lil slow, 1/4" at least, to take good shots.

Assuming you don't have a tripod, 1/4 sec. is a little too slow to handhold (try it yourself before you go). You might be surprised, though. Sometimes these indoor shows are brightly lit. Depending on how steady your hands are, you probably don't want to get slower than 1/20 sec. - even then, you're right on the edge.

Try increasing your ISO to 100 or 200 (or more). You might need to trade shutter speed for some grain (noise). Experiment!

Also, try a few with the flash. You might get some good shots that way.

[shelbix2020]

Right now I have the ISO set to 50, I was getting really grainy images above that and Ive tried the flash before but the tailights and reflective surfaces ruin the pictures. Im pretty good at holding the camera steady at shuter speeds of 1/8 and faster.

I do have a tripod but I dont want to lug it around .... maybe I should if I want some quality pictures :roll:

thanks

[Ikinaa]

so far Ive learned NOT to use the flash and that the shutter speed needs to be a lil slow, 1/4" at least, to take good shots.


Try covering the flash with a piece of white paper, so when firing, you won't have a so crude light-point on the car, the light will diffuse a bit.

(just for fun... ever tried to put your finger on the flash before firing? That gives a good bloody picture :twisted: )

[pradeep1]

It's already Wed., but consider using a 420EX flash with a Stofen bounce head to give good lighting.

[John_T]

You will have trouble getting AF on red cars like a Ferrari because AF uses the green RGB plane. Find something else at the range, press shutter half way, recompose red car and shoot.

[scottbergerphoto]

Here's what I do with my G2:
1. Canon Off the Shoe Cord 2
2. 420EX flash
3. Flash bracket.
Get the flash off the camera, high and to the side of the camera. You might even have a friend stand behind you with a white umbrella and point the flash into the umbrella.
Scott

[PFlor]

I did this for the first time last year and it turned out pretty good. I used ISO 400 handheld, which gave shutter speeds of around 1/40-1/60 sec. No flash whatsoever (except for a couple of people shots) and used NeatImage for post processing. I still have last year's shots still at my home page:

http://www.peterflor.com/autoshow2003/index.htm

[gmack]

You need to use a polarizer filter to reduce the glare from reflected surfaces. Good luck at the auto show! :shock:

[JojoM]

I live in Southern California as well but I've never been to the L.A. Auto Show. I was at the Anaheim Auto Show last November and took a bunch of pictures with my G3. My advice is to switch your camera to shutter-priority AE and use the slowest shutter-speed you can handle. I set mine to 1/30s. I only used the flash for interior shots, it was turned off most of the time. Another tip, try to come in early in the morning so you don't have to deal with the crowd. Good luck and have fun!

Here's a sample picture taken at the show using the settings I described. Check out my auto show gallery (http://www.pbase.com/jojom/anaheim_auto_show) to see more car pics.
http://www.pbase.com/image/22952590/original.jpg

________________________
Jojo
http://www.pbase.com/jojom

[shelbix2020]

hehe thats funny, I have all the same photos from last years LA car show and the Anahiem one

well Im not going up untill Fri :cry: so I may have to deal with a crowd

I think the problem I was having with graininess was from the compression level, I have it set to the lowest now. Ill take some practice shots between now and then and see how they turn out

thanks again

[Basiltoo]

Try continuous shooting mode if there is a real must have shot. You have a much better chance of success at slow shutter speeds if you take three or four shots. I tried this technique after reading a post in this forum and it definitely works!

[John_T]

I would shoot RAW. If you are short on CF space, buy more. Shame to go to all that trouble and come back with only jpeg.

[shelbix2020]

Ill be heading up today .. yay ... beter get some shut eye. Ill post some pics when I get back.

[CBlues]

Here is a link to a web site with excellent suggestions for photographing automobiles:

http://www.cobracountry.com/fototips/home.html

Chuck

[shelbix2020]

thanks, thats a great site

well I got Im back and most of the photos turned out great ... that is to say, they are in focus and not at all grainy

I was really dissapointed with the black cars, for some reason the auto focus just wouldnt focus, I guess I should have done manuall but my friends were pushing me on to hurry up lol

Ill post the pics just as soon as I can find some web space ... I think itll be on Sonys ImageStation or that other one .. JAlbum

[shelbix2020]

I really like this picture ... Im still thinking of how and where to make a good album, ImageStation is too slow and I cant hot link easily ;)
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid98/p1199702d814215b6fe2a8ea442766fda/f9fff86d.jpg.orig.jpg
Exif data (http://www.imagestation.com/mypictures/inbox/view.html?url=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid98/p1199702d814215b6fe2a8ea442766fda/f9fff86d.jpg.orig.jpg&caption=saleen%20thunderbird &id=4194302061)